


Getting to Stone 5

by kineticallyanywhere



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), Supergirl (TV 2015), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Cisco Whump, Gen, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, and nothing worse than whats mentioned in the fic this is based on, basically all of the damage is psychological thanks to Gideon, hurt with comfort, nothing explicet, theres like one line of dialogue in this whole thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-11 22:32:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9037574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kineticallyanywhere/pseuds/kineticallyanywhere
Summary: Based on a snippet fic in which the Dominators abduct Cisco in order to exploit his abilities. After the fact, he can't just swipe it all under the rug, but he doesn't have to. And he especially doesn't have to do it alone. 
This is more or less a drabble with plot that I wrote as more-or-less stream of consciousness so it's not very linear.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So I wrote this based on a Flash snippet by swordcane91, and I GUESS you don't have to read that first, but I recommend it. This is a sequel to that which I wrote on my phone for like 3 hours when I didn't want to get out of bed.

It was tough for Cisco to say what happened after Barry, Oliver, and Nate had gotten him off of the Dominator ship. There were certain things he only knew because someone told him, like the fact that Oliver and Nate were even there, that the Dominators  had had him for just less than a day, and that the Dominator ship did not survive their rescue mission.  
  
Apparently since they (obviously)  hadn't had Vibe to track Cisco down like they had for the others, their frantic strategy was to pick the most likely ship and send Supergirl at it like a cannon ball. If she found any sort of prison on board, she would call for back up.  
  
Steel came because the (not unlimited supply of) tech from the Waverider helped him speak Dominator and he took laser shots like a pro. Also punched like a pro.  
  
The Flash had a number of reasons why he should (and why he shouldn't) tag along. The winning factors in the end were that Barry Allen was Barry "Friend" Allen (a middle name he seemed to be wearing like a title since Cisco had said it) and that no one could realistically hope to stop him but Kara and Kara was on his side.  
  
Barry seemed to be puzzled over why the Green Arrow insisted on coming. Cisco understood pretty quickly, and so had Sara. She'd let him onto the Waverider (/Earth to alien spacecraft shuttle bus) with hardly more than a meaningful glance.  
  
All of those things Cisco knew because he'd had a rotating queue of Barry, Felicity, and Caitlin at his bedside constantly since he'd first woken up and Barry and Felicity were Chatty Kathys. He was grateful for them though, since they mostly kept his mind active and in the present.  
  
He was grateful for Caitlin in a different way. His time with Caitlin was quieter. She was content to put her hand in his or on his shoulder and move it just enough to remind him that she's there. She spoke softly with Gideon, leaning how her tech worked and getting a head start on medical knowledge - that she promised to keep to herself - in the interest of saving the lives of heroes while preserving the future landscape of medicinal technology. A lot of it went over Cisco's head, but he did answer some questions, and have his questions answered, about the mechanics of the tech itself. If he wasn't doing that, he was sleeping.  
  
He'd been afraid to sleep at first. More accurately, he'd been afraid to vibe at first. Vibing in his sleep was not an irregular thing, and the prospect of using his powers after what he'd gone through left a sour taste in his throat and an anticipatory rush in his arms.  
  
As for what he'd gone through, it was a blurr. There was pain in his body and a coldness in his arms that made him light headed. There was the utterly unrelenting pressure in his skull from whatever tech they'd strapped on his head. In the vibe itself he'd felt like he was being shoved along from vision to vision. At least until exhaustion started to kick in, the pressure increased, and he felt like he was being dragged. He knew he'd been shackled and squished into the wall, but even in the vibe he couldn't stand.  
  
He didn't trust his memory in some spots. The biggest example was a time when his memory tried to convince him that the Dominators had made him go looking for Overwatch. After vibe after vibe of his friends he couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't take looking at them - being in the room with them - and still being helpless. So he'd found where the pressure of the halter started and he pushed _harder_.   
  
In his memory he managed to project himself into Felicity’s work space. He could barely hold himself off of the ground - as if gravity had any real effect on him - and he couldn't stop shaking as he called for her. He remembered her whirling around in her chair. He remembered her kneeling in front of him, unable to hold his shoulders but faking it anyway. Trying to wipe something from his face. Telling him that they were coming. That they hadn't stopped their search since the moment he was taken just outside the hall.  
  
He tried to tell her to run. That they knew where she was now.  
  
She told him his nose was bleeding.  
  
And then he was snapped back into indescriminant space-time - the closest to his body the halter would allow him to get. A relief compared to the strain projection had been, but not relief enough. Like he'd been jogging and then he sprinted till his muscles cramped but he couldn't stop moving. Couldn't even walk, he had to keep jogging.  
  
There was chittering of Dominator talk. Even with the language chip from the Waverider he couldn't make sense of it. Then the slide of a door. Then nothing changed for a while. Nothing huge, at least. His arms got colder to the point that he couldn't twitch them if he tried. His eyelids felt heavy and the eyes beneath burned with strain, but closing them made no difference. He held onto Felicity’s promises until he couldn't remember them. There was just him, the garbage press half closed around his head, and the entirety of space-time stretched out before him.  
  
He did his best to curl up in a corner of it and let it swirl around him. Let it do what it wants. Who knew how long the Dominators would take before they shoved him along again.  
  
Maybe they'd go for his legs next.  
  
Felicity told him that all of that was true. Or at least that he really had shown up in the Arrow Cave. He asked her to spare no details, because if he couldn't trust his memory then he had to trust his friends, so she didn't. She told him he'd been on his knees with his arms wrapped close to him. He'd been ugly crying and his image was fritzing. She'd never seen him so terrified so she'd tried to comfort him somehow but he kept trying to talk over her. It wasn't easy, because his voice wasn't totally coming through, but she'd gotten the message: run. Get out.  
  
A Dominator ship had appeared directly above the Cave not fifteen minutes later. It was empty when a squad of Dominators forced their way inside two minutes after that. Which meant the ship wasn't at full foce when Supergirl busted right through the cockpit at the same time.  
  
It had been the ship they'd been keeping Cisco on. Half an hour after Cisco had vibed Felicity, he was passed out in the med bay on the Waverider. Well, "passed out" was a generous term. He'd been on a heavy sedative cocktail for the first few hours while Gideon repaired his arms.  
  
Before that, though, Cisco remembered barely being able to breath. He remembered not thinking straight and even being minimally aware of not thinking straight. He remembered a world that felt like syrup and words floating around like "resistant" and "medically induced". In hindsight, he recognized symptoms of a panic attack.  
  
Caitlin could confirm that. She could also confirm that whatever the Dominators had been injecting Cisco with had gotten his body to build up a resistance to the sedatives Gideon had originally started him on. They'd been careful toeing the line between simply upping or changing the dosage or just putting him right into a medically induced coma until he was in top shape.  
  
Oliver’s intention on being there became obvious at that point. Putting Cisco in a coma until he was shiny and new again was an attractive idea, but Oliver had reminded them that that wasn't really possible. Gideon could repair all manner of physical damage, even cognitive damage from fighting back against the drugs and the machines, but psychological damage couldn't be fixed by any magic supercomputers from the future.  
  
Whatever state Cisco's body would be in when he woke up, he'd been through something aweful, and he couldn't sleep it off or learn to sedate it out of existance. He'd need to learn how to sleep again, how to trust his own powers again, and how to believe that it was over. It wasn't five years on an island or three years in Nanda Par Batt, but it was hours and hours of torture by aliens. It was something he'd have to face, and he shouldn't have to face it alone.  
  
Under Oliver’s suggestion, as soon as Cisco's arms were repaired and the sedatives wore off, for the first three days he was never alone. There was always someone by his bedside. Sometimes it was nice and it made him feel safe and kept him from feeling lonely.  
  
Other times it was aweful. He didn't want to be pitied, he didn't want to be held, he didn't want to be watched while he sobbed into his pillow or have every nightmare witnessed. But no matter how much he ignored them (Barry rode it out like he was used to it), or glared (Caitlin glared right back like a champ), or yelled (Felicity was alarmingly good at holding her ground against that one) they wouldn't leave him alone. They'd swap out or bring in someone new if it got particularly bad; like Ray, or Dr. Stein. He was pretty sure Nate and Kara each took turns once while he was sleeping.  
  
Oliver took his turn when Cisco couldn't stop crying, boarding on a panic attack, but did _not_  want to be touched. He couldn't explain why, he just _couldn't_. Couldn't explain why, couldn't stop crying, couldn't let Barry touch him, couldn't breath when he blasted Barry into the wall without thinking.  
  
Oliver had been the first one in the room and ushered Barry and any stragglers out in less than a minute. When everyone else was gone, he didn't try to break into Cisco's space. He didn't plead with him, or shush him. Most of what Oliver said was lost to Cisco's memory and to his then faltering ability to focus. What he did remember stuck with him.  
  
"Cisco, the world has not changed. It feels like it's sliding under your feet, but it's not. You're the one who's different. You may not like it, and you don't _have_  to like it. You won't be like this forever. Don't waste time thinking about what you used to be like. Think about what you still can be. The world fought you. It hurt you, and it will do it again. Think about how you're going to fight back. Think about how, next time, you'll be ready. Remember everything you've ever fought for. Remember why it's yours. Now don't let it go."  
  
He talked like that for a while. Always in absolutes, and never with any doubts. He never said, "I know what you're going through." He never said, "This, too, shall pass." There was no water under the bridge for Oliver, only stepping stones. And it helped.  
  
Cisco realized he'd been afraid of his powers. Again. Every time he thought he was over it something happened. One step forward, two steps back. He'd felt his powers recovering inside of himself and he had panicked. Even if he didn't use his powers for evil, someone else could. Someone had taken his powers and strung him along by them like a dog. What if someone did it again? What if his powers did it on their own, taking over him like Caitlin’s did to her?  
  
But his powers weren't evil. He'd learned that when his friends found out about them. He didn't need to toss the thought away down the river (under the bridge), he needed to build on it.  
  
_Stone one: my powers are not evil._  
  
After meeting Reverb he'd worried almost constantly about what he'd meant when he said they were all connected. How many other Ciscos had powers? Did they all know each other? Could they watch and see through each other like Reverb had been watching him? If they were all connected and one of them fell to the darkside, would all of them? To save himself from that fate, could he even get rid of them if he tried? Was there a timeline where he didn't have them? Did it matter if there was?  
  
_Stone one: my powers are not evil._  
  
_Stone two: my powers are a part of me._  
  
_"We're you're family."_  
  
Barry and Caitlin and Iris and Joe and Harry and Wally and Felicity and Roy and Ray and Digg and Oliver.  
  
_Stone three: I am not alone._  
  
When Cisco finally calmed down, it was just quiet for a while. He just sat in his bed with his eyes closed. Awake. Breathing. Letting his powers do whatever it was they did as they got back on their own metaphorical feet. The gentle hum he could hear if he listened was no longer foreign or threatening. He wasn't sure what it was or what it would be, but it was there and it was part of him.  
  
Oliver wasn't the touchiest or most comforting guy ever, but after Cisco opened his eyes to stare at his hands he made his way from the foot of the bed to Cisco's side. A hand on his shoulder was simpler than a hug or a hand held, but it was grounding in a way the others couldn't be. He wasn't being held - didn't need to be, didn't want to be, he was okay - but he wasn't alone. He was there, in the room, for real this time. Everything that had happened had happened, but he would be okay again. Even if he wasn't right now. And he wouldn't have to do it alone.  
  
Not too long after that, Sara stepped inside. Probably to see that everything was okay and that they hadn't gone quiet for a very different reason, but she didn't say anything. She ended up sitting on the bed next to him. He couldn't meet her eyes, but she didn't make a deal out of it. He kind of felt like he'd just joined a club he'd had no intention of joining. But there he was anyway.  
  
The only way he knew how to describe it was as Club Been Through Some Shit. He didn't know how to articulate said "Shit" as prolonged and hellish torture, and he wasn't sure he could step out of it - through it - they same way that the two of them had, but it felt like a Thing.  
  
Sara wasn't the touchist either, but she was touchier than Oliver. Cisco didn't really want to be held, but when she guided his head to her shoulder and kept one arm around his, he didn't fight it. It was nice.  
  
The next day, they finally let him out of the med bay. There had been elements of Cisco's powers that Gideon had no prior knowledge of and so was unable to repair any apparent damage to them herself. Because of that, they had confined him to bed until they could be certain he had himself under control. "Under control" had not originally included "is not afraid of said powers" (which they all assured him would have been completely understandable) but it did. If anything, making the portal to E-38 so that Kara could finally go home had been easier than the first time. He'd wanted to be finished building the demensional extrapolater by then, but he could deliver that any time.  
  
He'd missed a lot of the post-invasion after party, but that was okay with him. When they got back to Central City proper they had their own little party at the West house. Cisco loved Barry and Caitlin, but after three days of seeing almost nothing but their faces, he spent the game of Cards Against Humanity sandwiched betweem the West kids. Barry and Cisco still knew exactly which cards to play to win each other's rounds. Iris was also scarily good at it, as always.  
  
Stepping into his bedroom - Barry on his couch - was the first time he'd been by himself since he'd been rescued. He expected to cry (and he did) and he expected to have nightmares (and he did), but he didn't break.  
  
Barry may not be his hero anymore (his definition of hero was seeing new, gray, areas lately) but he was his friend. When Barry walked outside with him at four in the morning, just to prove that he could, he saw a friend before he saw a hero. And he was okay with that. It didn't feel like it used to (it never would again) but it felt stronger somehow. Like they were building something new, but not by washing away what had been before. They were building on it.  
  
Like stepping stones.  
  
_Stone four: Barry Allen is my friend._  
  
(Whether the "best" would really come back… jury was still out. But that didn't matter now. That would matter later.)  
  
The next time Cisco made it into his work room with the sewing machine to work on Wally's costume, he got distracted for a while by a different pile of fabric. A different pile of design notes. He wondered about what that next stone was.  
  
( _Stone five: Cisco Ramon is a hero._ )


End file.
